INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY ADVANCED RESEARCH TRENDS ISSN : 2349-7408 VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1, AUGUST 2014 AN OVERVIEW OF THE MUSLIM ORIENTED TV SERIALS OF INDIA Zahoor Hussain Bhat Sub-editor (Trainee) at United News of India Karipora, District: Budgam Jammu and Kashmir (Kashmir) Abstract India has more than 20 crore Muslim population who has been maintaining cordial relationship with all other communities of the country since centuries. They contribute to the country in every sphere of life. Providentially Indian people of different communities take keen interest in knowing their way of living, their cultures and history. This is evident through the fact that TV serials based on the Muslim background have remained highly popular among viewers. During the past three decades, numbers of TV serials have been made on Muslims background and after a short interval of disinclination during the first decade of the 21st century; the trend has got revived as is evident through the success of soap operas like “Qubool Hai”, “Jodha Akbar” and “Beintehaa”. The main objective of this paper is to give an overview about the TV serials that have been set on Muslim background so far. This will include account on the story content, success stories and other related matters. Keywords: Television, Muslim Serials, India, Popularity, Viewers 104 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY ADVANCED RESEARCH TRENDS ISSN : 2349-7408 VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1, AUGUST 2014 Introduction India is a multi-religious, multi-lingual and multi-cultural country. It is a second populous country of the world with a share of 17.4 of the world population. It has a great history of communal harmony. The concept of religious harmony has deep roots in its cultures. A country credited with being custodian of countless and centuries old cultures. Indian cultures vary from place to place. Dissimilarity in demography, geography, history, religion and languages separates one culture from the other. According to the 2001 census, 80.5% of the population of India practice Hinduism. Islam (13.8%), Christianity (2.4%), Sikhism (1.9%), Buddhism (1.5%) and Jainism (0.4%) are the other major religions followed by the people of India. There are hundreds of languages spoken in India. The People belonging to different cultures speak different languages. However, on the basis of speakers in numbers, Hindi and English have been designated as the official languages of the country. According to the census of 2001, about 41 percent of the Indian population speaks the Hindi language. Some regional languages also have a good number of speakers. Census of 2001 discloses that Bengali is spoken by 8.11% (83 million) of the Indian population. Similarly Telegu by 7.19%, Marathi by 6.99%, Tamil by 5.19%, Urdu by 5.01%, Gujarati by 4.48%, Kannada by 3.69%, Malayalam by 3.21%. The other regional languages too have a good number of speakers. Most of the people who are the native speakers of different regional languages, understand the official languages of the country in addition. Those who speaking Urdu do understand Hindi as well and vice versa. 105 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY ADVANCED RESEARCH TRENDS ISSN : 2349-7408 VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1, AUGUST 2014 The constitution of India declares India a secular and a democratic country. This country upholds this honour in letter and spirit. History bears witness to the fact that this country warmly welcomed the people of different religions and civilizations in the past and this development continues in present as well. Before the arrival of Britishers to this country, its land attracted a number of Muslim rulers of different countries to settle down here. It is said that Muslim rulers ruled this country for more than one thousand years. They treated all the people equally. There was no discrimination on the basis of religion during their rule. After the fall of the Mughal Empire, when India ha completely gone into the hands of Britishers, people from all religions unitedly launched a freedom movement. Muslims played an important role in the freedom struggle. Great Muslim personalities like Tipu Sultan, Hyder Ali, Bahadur Shah Zafar, Abdul Kalam Azad, Mohammad Ali Jouhar, Hasrat Mohani and others fought enthusiastically against the occupying forces. In addition Urdu journalism played a vital role in freedom struggle. The news reports, articles, features and editorials that would appear in Urdu newspapers had encouraged Indians to rise against the occupants. Delhi Urdu Akhbar played an exceptional role in this regard. Even its editor Moulvi Mohammad Baqir is the first journalist who was martyred by the British army. These facts make it obvious that Muslims are an integral part of Indian civilization. The main aim behind the above discussion was to shed some light on the religious, lingual and the cultural diversity of the country (India). No doubt in India followers of many religions observe their religious festivals together which help in 106 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY ADVANCED RESEARCH TRENDS ISSN : 2349-7408 VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1, AUGUST 2014 strengthening of ‘interfaith relations’. Currently, the hostility that is being witnessed within the world is attributable to the explanation that countries have developed ‘misunderstandings’ against one another. Ironically, in the present day, gap between practices of different religions worldwide is getting widened and to some extent misconceptions against each other prevail in India. In this 21st century, mass media is a most powerful tool which if properly used could easily do away with this ‘gap’ and ‘misconceptions’. In fact it is mass media who introduce the practitioners of one religion to the practitioners of the other religion. It can be best used to inform people about different cultures and religions. Among different forms of mass media, television is credited with being most preferred means of communication. It has a capacity to cater the information and entertainment needs of both the illiterates and literates. There are now exclusive TV channels for entertainment and information (news). Entertainment channels have a great potential of eradicating misconceptions prevailing in the country between different religions. The number of viewers of TV serials (soap operas) is escalating with each passing day. If the content of these soap operas is developed with an intention of doing away with the misconceptions among different sections of the society and bridging the gaps between followers of different faiths then it would be the most impact factor of positive changes. This is not a new idea. Even the content of India’s first soap opera “Hum Log” was developed keeping in mind a special cause. “Hum Log” a soap opera based on 154 episodes was telecasted from July 7, 1984 to September 17, 1985 on Doordarshan. The main aim behind the telecast of the serial was to entertain and side by side make 107 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY ADVANCED RESEARCH TRENDS ISSN : 2349-7408 VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1, AUGUST 2014 people aware of some necessary issues. The content of “Hum Log” had incorporated issues ranging from family planning to the deliverance of pro-development messages. The idea behind using soap opera “Hum Log” for addressing some social issues was not an innovative but the same was adopted from soap operas made in Mexico and other third world countries. In Mexico and other third world countries the making of pro-development and pro- social began in 70’s. The pro-development soaps operas in Mexico succeeded to a great extent in educating people about their social problems. This clearly indicates that TV serials (soap operas) could best be used to entertain and educate people about different cultures and religions. Educate the audience about the background and the way the followers of these cultures and religions are living. Furthermore, it could play a role of ‘revolutionist’ as far as eradication of the social evils from the society is concerned. But it is possible only if the content of TV serials is developed keeping the motto in mind. I don’t say that content should be developed entirely ‘social reformer’ centred and entertainment should be given secondary priority. Soap operas are basically meant for entertainment and developers (writers) of the content should keep that. But I say a mixture of entertainment and messages on social issues would fetch two goals at a same glance. An overview During 8th and 9th decade of the 20th century many Muslim oriented TV serials were aired on television and were highly popular. According to an Indian Express report during that period be it the story of Heena (Simone Singh), who struggles 108 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY ADVANCED RESEARCH TRENDS ISSN : 2349-7408 VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1, AUGUST 2014 through an unhappy marriage or be it Juhi Parmar in the title role of Shaheen, a serial that dealt with extra-marital affairs, and the iconic Doordarshan show Gul Gulshan Gulfam, which revolved around a Kashmiri family’s houseboat business being affected by the insurgency. They were all popular among viewers. And the reason for their popularity was the attractive portrayal of social life and particularly the main reason of fame was their depiction of Muslim families and their culture. In turn viewers whole-heartedly watched, liked and applauded them. But during the first decade of the 21st century a sudden break in the making of Muslim oriented serials was observed. In fact throughout the first decade of the 21st century, TV serial producers seemed to be reluctant about the stories based on Muslim background and had been entirely a decade dominated by ‘Saas Bahu’ infighting. May be the producers had approached channels with the stories portraying the Muslim culture and standard of living but channels had been unwilling in airing them. It is evident from the Indian Express report in which Mrinal Jha, creative producer of Muslim oriented TV serial ‘Qubool Hai’ has been quoted as having said that ‘they had approached many other channels before Zee TV but were told that the country at this point of time was not ready for a show with Muslim backdrop.’ The history about the making of TV serials in India is not too old.